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Do you turn the Mac mini off?
- Thread starter Che Castro
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I turn mine off because I like the feeling that all the computer is OFF.
It will take a slight bit of time, and intention to turn it ON again.
and life is too short and precious to be tied to getting caught up in having it too available - even one step of removal is a good, and for me, spiritual, step.
Its not all about pennies, productivity, and how immortal my hard drive is.
It will take a slight bit of time, and intention to turn it ON again.
and life is too short and precious to be tied to getting caught up in having it too available - even one step of removal is a good, and for me, spiritual, step.
Its not all about pennies, productivity, and how immortal my hard drive is.
I turn my Mini off every night and on again every morning. For those doing the maths, you might like to factor in all your peripherals.
I have two Apple Cinema Displays, which power off when the Mini switches off (as distinct from sleeping. Their little white light is on when they're sleeping; it's off when they're off). They would probably use a fair amount on standby. I also have two external hard drives, an audio interface, amp and speakers.
My previous iMac I turned off every night for six years. And the Mac before that, and the Mac before that.
I have two Apple Cinema Displays, which power off when the Mini switches off (as distinct from sleeping. Their little white light is on when they're sleeping; it's off when they're off). They would probably use a fair amount on standby. I also have two external hard drives, an audio interface, amp and speakers.
My previous iMac I turned off every night for six years. And the Mac before that, and the Mac before that.
Sleep mode draws enough power to keep your data in RAM alive, so you can start using the computer again instantly. Other than that it's the same as turning the computer off.
Although, wait, I just remembered that Macs will power devices via USB in sleep mode but not when turned off. So if you have USB devices that are always connected, they will be using power too.
Personally I have my Mini set to sleep after an hour of inactivity, so I never worry about whether the computer is on or off, I can just sit down and start using it or walk away from it whenever I want. I never have to think about whether I should turn it on or off, which is worth the tiny fraction of a dollar that it costs to sleep vs. powering it off.
I turn mine off because I like the feeling that all the computer is OFF.
It will take a slight bit of time, and intention to turn it ON again.
and life is too short and precious to be tied to getting caught up in having it too available - even one step of removal is a good, and for me, spiritual, step.
Its not all about pennies, productivity, and how immortal my hard drive is.
Nicely said.
I bought a 2012 mac mini to use in my classroom because the Dells the provide us with would freeze up if more than one tab was open when using any browser (I think it had around 512 MB of RAM). I almost never turn it off, I only put it to sleep. The only time I turn it off is on three day weekends or if there is going to be possible bad weather.
I have a 2012 Mini with 16 GB When I use Parallels, even after closing program my memory will slowly drop to about 1 to 2 gigs free and never increase with all programs closed. I usually only have Safari and Itunes open. In finder no program is listed as using more than 1 Gb. I assume Parallels causes the memory leak. After restart I have about 11 to 13Gb free. So I agree with you about restarting.And how many watt hours of effort will I have to waste providing you with sufficient justification that will satisfy you? (If that is even a possibility...)
Do you also unplug (not just turn off) your laptop, tablet, TV and all your appliances, alarm clocks, hot water heater, and furnace or baseboard heaters when you leave? Because those have an equal or better chance of starting a fire. Especially a laptop, tablet, or phone, since batteries are known to start fires occasionally. The Mini doesn't even have a battery.
Eh, I just throw the main breaker to the house when I leave in the morning. Sure the house is 10C when I arrive back, but I saved a lot of money in energy and protected myself from fire! Sure the fire alarms run off of the main power of my house, but really who cares...
I have always left my computers running for days and even weeks. I have a 2012 Mac mini and a windows laptop which just stays at work and when I leave I just lock it.
I have the screen saver set for 5 minutes and turn monitor off after 30 minutes. Never put them to sleep.
Now for those who rarely turn their Macs off, what settings do you use?
I have the screen saver set for 5 minutes and turn monitor off after 30 minutes. Never put them to sleep.
Now for those who rarely turn their Macs off, what settings do you use?
I would just set the computer to sleep after an hour or two of inactivity unless you are running some software that needs to stay active. There seems to be very little disadvantage to allowing it to sleep. Just an extra second or two to display the login screen maybe. Although since the Mini only uses ~11W when idle it's not like your power savings are going to be huge either. I live in a place where electricity is cheap and ecological so it doesn't matter at all to me. I used to have a hackintosh which used 100W when idle and I had to keep it on all the time because the sleep mode was unreliable. It made very little impact to my power bill. But it is a nice feeling that the Mini uses so much less electricity. No reason to use more than you need, really.
Mine is on 24/7 and runs like a champ.
I use it as a plex server, and home theater set up with my TV.
I also had another mini prior and it also was on all the time no issues until I upgraded.
Best little computer and crazy energy efficient.
I use it as a plex server, and home theater set up with my TV.
I also had another mini prior and it also was on all the time no issues until I upgraded.
Best little computer and crazy energy efficient.
Mine is my main computer AND my home server so it's on 24/7. Power usage is minimal, so why not? I just turn the monitor off. My NAS uses more idle power than my Mini.
Almost. When I'm going to be away on a trip every wall plug gets yanked, including phone, except for refrigerator Heat I can't turn off in a condo
You're referring to the cache that OSX builds in RAM to make programs start up more quickly after the first time they are opened. If you really want to, you can free up that memory without rebooting by opening up a terminal window and typing "purge"